Just a Dairy Bar...

So, I nurse my baby in front of my other children. It's kind of hard not to... I mean, we are always together, and the baby does need to eat. So my kids are used to it. They know how a mother's body works. It is not a big deal to them... when they see me breastfeeding, or another mother breastfeeding, at that. Apparently though, there are a lot of children out there that might not have had all this exposure to the world of boobies and milk, and really have no IDEA what breastfeeding is. Case in point:

Jordan's friend who has come over to play: "What you doing?"

Me: "I'm feeding the baby."

friend: "Whatcha feedin him?"

Me: "um, milk."

friend: "Where's the bottle?"

Me: "he's not using a bottle."

friend: "Well, how are you doing it then?!"

Me: "Well, um..., I, um..." Okay, now surely I should not have been embarrassed about explaining this very natural process to a seven year old, but still... he's not my kid. I didn't know what kinds of words his parents may use... and I certainly didn't want to send him home with crazy questions... can you just imagine your own child coming home from a friends house and saying, "Jordan's Mom told me to ask you about those," while pointing?

At this point Sam pipes up from the background of our conversation, saying "Mommy feeds the baby milk from her rib!" From my rib... well, okay. general vicinity... not too bad. (I just said my kids knew what breastfeeding was... if Sam wants to call it a rib, what's the harm in that?) Jordan, on the other hand, is old enough to know it isn't a rib, and in total embarrassment at the thought of his mother discussing this with his friend, has retreated to his room, far, far away from the conversation.

Jordan's poor friend is looking more and more confused... time to explain.

I say, "Well, Mommys can make milk for their babies just like a cow can make milk." Oh, geez. Did I really just compare myself to a cow? Of all the other hundreds of mammals in this world that make milk for their babies... I could have compared myself to the cheetah, or the long legged, graceful Gazelle. But no. I am the slow moving, massive, smelly, year round dairy bar that is the cow. Great. "Then the babies drink from the mother's body just like animal babies drink from their Mommys."

Obviously my explanation was sufficient because the friend mumbled something incoherent and then raced off to Jordan's room to play something totally masculine, requiring lots of grunting and big explosion noises...

and not requiring any thought about Mommys or babies or milk.